China is intensifying its push into humanoid robotics as Beijing prepares to host two back-to-back industry showcases. Organisers of the 2025 World Robot Conference, which opens on 8 August, say more than 100 new robots and related products will be unveiled—almost twice last year’s total. The surge in hardware includes commercial shipments: start-up NOETIX alone delivered 105 humanoid units in July, underscoring the sector’s move from laboratory trials to early-stage volume production. Attention will then turn to the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games from 15–17 August, also in the capital. Reuters footage shows university-built robots dribbling and kicking footballs as teams refine perception and control algorithms. More than 20 countries have registered for events ranging from soccer and track-and-field to industrial handling, with China’s Tsinghua-affiliated Hephaestus team fielding Booster Robotics’ ‘T1’, fresh from a gold-medal performance at RoboCup in Brazil. Domestic research groups continue to unveil prototypes aimed at real-world deployment. Hefei-based Youibot Robotics introduced ‘Ling Shu’, described as the world’s first cross-scenario humanoid featuring a single 275-trillion-operation-per-second ‘brain’ that can operate multiple robot forms. The 1.66-metre, 40-kilogram machine offers 33 degrees of freedom and omnidirectional mobility suited to tasks such as parcel sorting and semiconductor inspection. The twin events, coupled with rapid advances in modular architectures and scaled production, illustrate Beijing’s strategy of using high-profile competitions and exhibitions to accelerate adoption of embodied AI. Industry executives view the August gatherings as a proving ground for algorithms and hardware that could soon migrate to factories, warehouses and public-facing services.